The Boom Boom Room Celebrates Five Years

“Welcome to the fall, or whatever this is,” hotelier André Balazs grinned, gesturing toward the sea of fashion folk streaming into the Top of the Standard (the “Boom Boom Room,” in party parlance) on the first jam-packed night of the season. But it wasn’t the start of the September shows—or the surprising nip in the air—that the crowd was out in spades to celebrate: Rather, it was the eighteenth-floor lounge’s fifth anniversary as the nonofficial perch of the well-dressed set. “I feel a bit like a parent on a child’s fifth birthday,” laughed Balazs, the mastermind behind the space and its duly dapper mascot. “Like a child, it keeps growing in subtle, significant ways all the time. It’s amazing that people continue to love it the way they always have.”

Indeed, anywhere one turned beneath the blanket of golden mylar balloons or amid the endless trays of caviar, champagne, and curried donuts (the next Cronut, perhaps?), there was a seasoned model or designer with a Standard anecdote to share. “It’s like a hall of memories for me,” Peter Brant II, in midnight-blue Prada, mused, wracking his brain. “Halloween, circa 2011: I was Nureyev. I came with Harry [Brant] and Pat McGrath, and we had the most insane night.” McGrath herself was there, huddled in one of the space’s signature banquettes alongside editor Shala Monroque, stylist Tabitha Simmons, and models Karen Elson and Guinevere Van Seenus. “There are too many memories,” a Nina Ricci–clad Elson sighed. “One of my favorite was after the Met Gala this year, sitting down next to Riccardo Tisci and Madonna. Just hanging out with them was beautiful.” Jewelry designer Genevieve Jones was less forthcoming. “My favorite Boom Boom memory is a secret—a big secret. It’s very naughty,” she blushed. Others, however, were less intimate with the space, surveying the 360-degree city views and recently renovated roof with fresh eyes. “That view!” Neil Patrick Harris—himself a relative Boom Boom neophyte—gushed, turning toward the window. “Just look at it.” And everyone, it seemed, stopped dancing just long enough to do so.